New iPhone 5 Question

[kcuber]

Okay, my wife and I own the iPhone 4 and we are up for renewal and want the iPhone 5. My son just recently got the iPod (5th Generation) and when he went to set it up on our MacBook he was unable to do so because with the OS we have (10.5.8) we were unable to download the new iTunes (we have 10.6.3). It is telling me that it is updated but when I go on our iMac the newest version is 11.0.1. When I click update on the MacBook to update the OS it says there are no updates at this time. We are still able to sync our iPhone 4s to the MacBooks however. My concern is what happens when we buy the new iPhone 5 and we are unable to hook up to the MacBooks because of the OS issue? How do we get our information on the new phone? Thanks!

 

[j.dstasio]

The iPhone 5 requires Snow Leopard or higher.

Here is some info from the Apple support threads on this that should help you out:

Upgrading to Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion

You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

You must purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.

After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.

Snow Leopard General Requirements

1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
2. 1GB of memory
3. 5GB of available disk space
4. DVD drive for installation
5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
fees may apply.
6. Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and
terms apply.

Upgrading to Lion

If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.

You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.

Lion System Requirements

1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
or Xeon processor
2. 2GB of memory
3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
4. 7GB of available space
5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

Upgrading to Mountain Lion

To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.

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If you are using the 4S already another perhaps easier option is to use iCloud and create a back up using iCloud. When you are setting up the iPhone 5, you will have an option in the beginning of the process to set the phone up as new, restore from an iCloud backup, or restore from an iTunes backup.